Aggregation handling

ABSTRACT

A method receives an inbound request to be processed based on multiple outbound service invocations of multiple outbound services. The method accesses expected response times for the inbound request for each of the multiple outbound services. The method determines which one or more of the multiple outbound services to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of the multiple outbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expected response times for the inbound request for each of the multiple outbound services. The method invokes asynchronously the one or more of the multiple outbound services determined to be invoked asynchronously, invokes synchronously the one or more of the multiple outbound services determined to be invoked synchronously.

BACKGROUND

Aggregation is an important enterprise service bus (ESB) patternenabling a single inbound request to map into multiple outbound serviceinvocations, the responses from which can be aggregated into a singlereply to the original request, all of which may be handled by the ESB.In such design patterns, a common implementation may include invokingmultiple synchronous services asynchronously, enabling concurrentprocessing of the separate invocations to reduce over response time ofthe solution. This typically involves utilizing a messaging layer tocorrelate requests and responses and provide a context switch to aseparate component to hand the synchronous invocation while the originalthread continues with additional concurrent processing.

In the simple case such implementations can help to reduce responsetimes in the aggregation block (the ESB) from the sum of the serviceinvocations (each invoked in turn), to the response time of the longestservice invocation (each invoked concurrently). However, invoking asynchronous service asynchronously has additional overheads to invokingthe same service synchronously, such as an additional messaging layerand context switch, which drives additional processing costs.

SUMMARY

Aspects described herein relate to facilities for handling an inboundrequest requiring multiple outbound service invocations, andspecifically provide a more efficient solution in terms of resourceutilization while maintaining the benefits of a reduced response time.

According to one aspect, there is provided a computer implemented methodthat includes receiving an inbound request to be processed based onmultiple outbound service invocations of multiple outbound services. Themethod further includes accessing expected response times for theinbound request for each of the multiple outbound services. The methodalso includes determining which one or more of the multiple outboundservices to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of the multipleoutbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expected responsetimes for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices. The method further includes invoking asynchronously the one ormore of the multiple outbound services determined to be invokedasynchronously. The method also includes invoking synchronously the oneor more of the multiple outbound services determined to be invokedsynchronously.

According to another aspect, there is provided a computer systemincluding a memory and a processor in communication with the memory. Thecomputer system is configured to perform a method that includesreceiving an inbound request to be processed based on multiple outboundservice invocations of multiple outbound services. The method furtherincludes accessing expected response times for the inbound request foreach of the multiple outbound services. The method also includesdetermining which one or more of the multiple outbound services toinvoke asynchronously and which one or more of the multiple outboundservices to invoke synchronously based on the expected response timesfor the inbound request for each of the multiple outbound services. Themethod further includes invoking asynchronously the one or more of themultiple outbound services determined to be invoked asynchronously. Themethod also includes invoking synchronously the one or more of themultiple outbound services determined to be invoked synchronously.

According to yet another aspect, there is provided a computer programproduct for controlling a system. The computer program product includesa computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodiedtherewith. The program instructions are executable by a computer performa method that includes receiving an inbound request to be processedbased on multiple outbound service invocations of multiple outboundservices. The method further includes accessing expected response timesfor the inbound request for each of the multiple outbound services. Themethod also includes determining which one or more of the multipleoutbound services to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of themultiple outbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expectedresponse times for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices. The method further includes invoking asynchronously the one ormore of the multiple outbound services determined to be invokedasynchronously. The method also includes invoking synchronously the oneor more of the multiple outbound services determined to be invokedsynchronously.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Aspects described herein are particularly pointed out and distinctlyclaimed as examples in the claims at the conclusion of thespecification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantagesof the invention are apparent from the following detailed descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the handling an inbound request to beprocessed based on multiple outbound service invocations in accordancewith aspects described herein;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an enterprise service bus connected toa database in accordance with aspects described herein;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of expected response times for services torespond to an invocation in accordance with aspects described herein;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method of handling an inbound request to beprocessed based on multiple outbound service invocations in accordancewith aspects described herein;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method of determining whether outboundservice invocations should be asynchronous or synchronous in accordancewith aspects described herein; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a computer processing system inaccordance with aspects described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows schematically an inbound request 10 being received by anenterprise service bus (ESB), the request 10 be processed based onmultiple outbound service invocations 12. For instance, it may bedesired, necessary, or required that the multiple outbound serviceinvocations 14 be made in order to facilitate processing of request 10.The services 16 are the targets for the invocations 14 and the ESB 12performs aggregation by receiving a single request 10, generatingmultiple outbound invocations 14, receiving responses 18 from theservices 16 and then generating a single reply 20 to the originator ofthe request 10. The ESB 12 decides how the outbound invocations 14 arescheduled in terms of which invocations 14 are dealt with asynchronouslyand which invocations 14 are dealt with synchronously. The scheduling ofthe invocations 14 is designed to balance speed and efficiency.

As noted above, aggregation is an important enterprise service bus (ESB)pattern. Aggregation enables the single inbound request 10 to map intothe multiple outbound service invocations 14, the responses 18 fromwhich can be aggregated into a single reply 20 to the original request10, all of which is handled by the ESB 12. In such design patterns acommon implementation may include invoking multiple synchronous servicesasynchronously, enabling concurrent processing of the separateinvocations 14 to reduce over response time of the solution. Thistypically involves utilizing a messaging layer to correlate requests andresponses and provide a context switch to a separate component to handthe synchronous invocation while the original thread continues withadditional concurrent processing.

In the simple case, such implementations can help to reduce responsetimes in the aggregation block (the ESB 12) from the sum of the serviceinvocations 14 (each invoked in turn), to the response time of thelongest service invocation 14 (each invoked concurrently). However,invoking a synchronous service 16 asynchronously has additionaloverheads to invoking the same service 16 synchronously, such as anadditional messaging layer and context switch, which drives additionalprocessing costs. A solution is needed to provide a more efficientsolution in terms of resource utilization while maintaining the benefitsof a reduced response time. This is achieved by the scheduling carriedout by the ESB 12 as described herein.

The ESB 12 uses an alternative processing option that tracksresponse/processing times of each leg of an aggregation block andcorrelates this with the properties of the message being processed, suchas message size, structure, fields, headers and so on. The integrationsolution could start by invoking each service 16 asynchronously (inparallel), then make a determination of whether to invoke each of thesynchronous services 16 synchronously or asynchronously based on themessage properties, historical data of processing times and applicationrequirements, as examples, once a corpus of data had been collected tomake appropriate determinations.

The ESB 12 captures data in relation to the operation of invocations 14in respect of individual services 16 to build up a database of expectedresponse times for different types of invocations 14 for the differentservices 16. For example, an invocation 14 may be a read request for aspecific set of data hosted by a service 16. Expected response times canbe built up for such read requests for that service 16, based upon thenature of the read request, such as the size of the data being requestedand the field(s) in the invocation 14 that relate to the location of thedata to be read within the service 16.

FIG. 2 shows the ESB 12 connected to and in data communication with adatabase 22, which is populated with performance data in relation to orindicating the response times of the different services 16. As the ESBinvokes the different services 16, then response times are captured andthis data is stored in the database 22. The entries within the databasemay be stored on a per-service basis and characteristics such as messagesize and so on may be used to categorize the different response timesrecorded. This allows the ESB 12 to build up the database 22 that can beused to predict an expected response time for a specific service 16 fora new request 10, given similarity or correlation to the data storedwithin the database 22.

An illustration of how the ESB 12 operates is shown below by means of anexample with reference to FIG. 3. An aggregation block is configured totake a single inbound message 10 and invoke five (in this example)synchronous services 16 (e.g. services with an HTTP interface)asynchronously to improve response times. As discussed above, the ESB 12is configured to track response/processing times for each leg of theaggregation block and store this associated with the message properties.A subsequent message may then be processed with message properties (i.e.message size) similar to messages seen previously. The ESB 12, whenaccessing expected response times for the inbound request 10 for each ofthe outbound services 16 to be invoked for processing the request,determines one or more properties of the inbound request 10 and accessesstored expected response times for respective outbound services 16 foreach determined property of the inbound request 10. There may be overlapin the respective outbound services involved, in that the responsestimes of a common one or more outbound service s may be accessed for twoor more of the determined properties of the outbound request.

The ESB 12 queries the historic tracking data stored in the database 22to retrieve estimates for processing times for each branch of theaggregation block, and in the example of FIG. 3, the following expectedresponse times are generated for the five involved services (correlatingto the five branches): Branch A=2 seconds, branch B=1 second, branch C=3seconds, branch D=0.2 seconds and branch E=0.2 seconds, as shown in FIG.3. Based on this data, the ESB 12 may make a determination about whichorder to process each of the branches and for each of the services 16whether to invoke them synchronously or asynchronously.

The ESB 12 first processes branch C asynchronously, as this is theservice 16 with the longest expected response time. The ESB 12 thenprocesses branch A asynchronously, as this is the branch with the secondlongest expected response time, but this may or may not be performedsynchronously with the remaining branches and still return before branchC is expected to return. The ESB may then process branches B, D and E inturn synchronously, since the sum of expected response times is1+0.2+0.2=1.4 seconds. So, the ESB 12 may expect to complete branches B,D and E all prior to branches A or C completing. Each branch completesin (or about) the expected time and as branches B, D and E were invokedsynchronously, it may take 1.4 seconds to complete these. As noted, theymay still return before branches A and C were completed. However, asbranches B, D, E were invoked synchronously, the messaging overheadwould not be incurred and thus the message processing would use fewerCPU cycles (and other resources) than invoking each asynchronously.

The ESB 12 operating in this manner provides improved response times foraggregation scenarios and reduced CPU cycles for aggregation scenarios.The ESB 12 delivers the managing and modifying of invocation styles ofservice invocations for aggregation design patterns with improvedprocess time and reduced CPU cycles. The ESB operates by basing thedynamic modifications on observed message properties and response timesfor synchronous invocations within branches of the aggregation solution.Previous harvesting of response times for individual services 16 leadsto the building up of data in the database 22 that can be used topredict response times for future requests that result in invocations ofthose services 16.

An embodiment of example operation of the ESB 12 is summarized in theflowchart of FIG. 4. The method includes receiving an inbound request(10) for multiple services (402), e.g. to be processed based on multipleoutbound service invocations 14. The method continues by accessingexpected response times (404) for the inbound request 10 for each of theoutbound services 16. The ESB 12 receives the request 10 and examinesthe properties of the request 10 in order to access expected responsetimes for the different service 16 that are to be invoked in order torespond to the request 10. The database 22 stores the necessaryinformation that allows the ESB 12 to estimate the expected responsetimes.

The method continues by determining which service(s) 16 to invokeasynchronously and which service(s) 16 to invoke synchronously (406)based on the expected response times for the inbound request 10 for eachof the outbound services 16. The method continues by invokingasynchronously (408) those service(s) 16 determined to be invokedasynchronously, and invoking synchronously (410) those service(s) 16determined to be invoked synchronously. In this way, the outboundinvocations 14 are scheduled by the ESB 12 to balance the competingdemands of speed and CPU requirements. One or more of the invocations 14are processed asynchronously and the remaining invocations 14 areprocessed synchronously.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart summarizing an embodiment of the decision makingprocess used to determine the split between asynchronous and synchronousinvocations 14. The ESB 12 maintains two lists, a “sync list” 24 and an“async list” 26, to which will be added the different services 16, inrelation to the current request 10 that has been received by the ESB 12.The different branches of the outgoing invocations 14 are located on onelist or the other list of the two lists 24 or 26 before the process canterminate and invoke the services 16. The process defined in theflowchart of FIG. 5 is designed to split the services 16 into those thatwill be invoked asynchronously and those that will be invokedsynchronously.

The method of FIG. 5 includes adding the outbound service 16 with theshortest expected response time to the list 24 of service(s) 16 to beinvoked synchronously (502). At 504 it is determined whether the sum ofthe expected response times for the service(s) 16 to be invokedsynchronously would exceed the longest expected response time for any ofthe outbound services 16 if the next shortest service were added to thesync list 24. If this is not the case (504, No), then the method returnsto 502 and the outbound service 16 with the next shortest expectedresponse time is added to the list 24 of service(s) 16 to be invokedsynchronously. This is repeated until the check at 504 is passed.

The method then proceeds by adding all outbound service(s) 16 not on thelist 24 of service(s) 16 determined to be invoked synchronously to thelist 26 of service(s) 16 determined to be invoked asynchronously (506).This means that once sufficient services 16 have been added to the list24 of those services 16 to be invoked synchronously to generate a totalexpected response time that is longer than the service 16 with thelongest expected response time then the other remaining services 16 willbe added to the list 26 and will be invoked asynchronously. The ESB 12builds up these lists 24 and 26, splitting the different services 16that need to be invoked between the two different lists 24 and 26.

For example, if the expected response times of five different services16 to be invoked are A=2, B=2, C=3, D=7 and E=8, then the methodology ofFIG. 5 would first place the service A with lowest value (2) onto thesynchronous list 24 and then check if the addition of the next shortestservice (B=2) to the sum of the times of the services on the list 24would be greater than the longest time for any service. Since at thispoint only service A is on the synchronous list and the total of A+B=4which is less than E=8, then the method would return to 502 and continueby adding service B (the next lowest value) onto the synchronous list24.

The total of the expected response times on the synchronous list is now4 (service A=2+service B=2), and when checked at 504 as to whetheradding the next shortest service (C=3) is still less than the expectedresponse time for the service E=8 so the service 16 with the nextsmallest response time is added to the synchronous list which would beservice C. The total of the expected response times on the synchronouslist is now 7 (service A=2+service B=2+service C=3), which when checkedat 504, the addition of the next shortest service (D=7) would be nowgreater than the longest expected response time for the service E, sothe ESB 12 will now add all remaining services (D and E) to theasynchronous list 26 and the scheduling will terminate.

In this example, the result of the partitioning of the services 16 intoa synchronous list 24 and an asynchronous list 26 means that there areeffectively three parallel processing divisions of the services 16 thatare to be invoked. These three divisions are: (i) service D, (ii)service E, and (iii) services A, B and C. The total time taken to invokethe services may be the time for services on the synchronous list 24 ofservices: A, B and C, which have a total expected response time of 7.The asynchronous services D and E may both be completed in parallel withthis time period, with the service E=8 defining the longest expectedtime period.

The structure of the process shown in FIG. 5 is such that the methodterminates before the total of those services 16 on the synchronous list24 exceeds the longest service 16. However, different embodiments ofthis process are possible. For example, the process could be structuredto continue adding services 16 to the synchronous list 24 until the sumof all of the services 16 on the synchronous list 24 exceeds the longestservice 16. In this case, in the example above, the service D would havebeen added to the sync list 24 before only service E is considered to beinvoked asynchronously. A percentage threshold could also be used as anextension of this embodiment, with a final service 16 being added to thesynchronous list 24 if the total time of the synchronous list 24 is lessthan the longest service 16 plus an additional percentage (10% or 20%for example, specifiable by an administrator). This may result in afinal service 16 being added to the synchronous list 24 only if thetotal time of the services 16 on the synchronous list 24 is not pushedtoo far in advance of the time of the longest service 16.

FIG. 6 shows more detail of the ESB 12. The ESB 12 may be implemented asa computer system, such as one including a processor 28 that isconnected to or incorporates an input connection 30 (which receives therequests 10) and an output connection 32 (which is connected to theservices 16). The processor 28 of the ESB 12 may also connected to alocal storage device 34 (which stores the database 22) and to a localinterface 36. A computer readable storage medium 38 may be provided,which may be a storage medium, such as a CD-ROM, storing a computerprogram product that includes instructions that may execute to controlthe processor 28 to operate the ESB 12 in a manner according to aspectsdescribed herein. The processor 28 executes instructions from thecomputer program product to operate ESB 12.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product at any possible technical detail level of integration.The computer program product may include a computer readable storagemedium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereonfor causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, configuration data for integrated circuitry, oreither source code or object code written in any combination of one ormore programming languages, including an object oriented programminglanguage such as Smalltalk, C++, or the like, and procedural programminglanguages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programminglanguages. The computer readable program instructions may executeentirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as astand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partlyon a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. Inthe latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user'scomputer through any type of network, including a local area network(LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to anexternal computer (for example, through the Internet using an InternetService Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including,for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gatearrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute thecomputer readable program instructions by utilizing state information ofthe computer readable program instructions to personalize the electroniccircuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of theorder noted in the Figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, thesingular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the pluralforms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It willbe further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising”,when used in this specification, specify the presence of statedfeatures, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, butdo not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features,integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below, if any, areintended to include any structure, material, or act for performing thefunction in combination with other claimed elements as specificallyclaimed. The description of one or more embodiments has been presentedfor purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to beexhaustive or limited to in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain variousaspects and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinaryskill in the art to understand various embodiments with variousmodifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method comprising:receiving an inbound request to be processed based on multiple outboundservice invocations of multiple outbound services; accessing expectedresponse times for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices; determining which one or more of the multiple outboundservices to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of the multipleoutbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expected responsetimes for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices, wherein the determining which one or more of the multipleoutbound services to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of themultiple outbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expectedresponse times for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices comprises adding an outbound service, of the multiple outboundservices, with the shortest expected response time to a list of one ormore services determined to be invoked synchronously and iterativelyadding one or more further outbound services, of the multiple outboundservices, with a next shortest expected response time to the list of oneor more services determined to be invoked synchronously, the iterativelyadding being performed as long as a sum of expected response times forthe one or more services determined to be invoked synchronously does notexceed a threshold; invoking asynchronously the one or more of themultiple outbound services determined to be invoked asynchronously; andinvoking synchronously the one or more of the multiple outbound servicesdetermined to be invoked synchronously.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the threshold comprises a longest expected response time for anyof the multiple outbound services.
 3. The method according to claim 1,wherein the determining which one or more of the multiple outboundservices to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of the multipleoutbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expected responsetimes for the inbound request for each of the multiple outbound servicesfurther comprises adding all outbound services, of the multiple outboundservices, not on the list of one or more services determined to beinvoked synchronously to a list of one or more services, of the multipleoutbound services, determined to be invoked asynchronously.
 4. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising monitoring responsetimes of outbound service invocations and accordingly updating storedexpected response times for at least one outbound service of themultiple outbound services.
 5. The method according to claim 1, whereinthe accessing expected response times for the inbound request for eachof the multiple outbound services comprises determining one or moreproperties of the inbound request and accessing, for each determinedproperty of the one or more properties of the inbound request, at leastone stored expected response time for at least one outbound service ofthe multiple outbound services.
 6. A computer system comprising: amemory; and a processor in communication with the memory, wherein thecomputer system is configured to perform a method comprising: receivingan inbound request to be processed based on multiple outbound serviceinvocations of multiple outbound services; accessing expected responsetimes for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices; determining which one or more of the multiple outboundservices to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of the multipleoutbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expected responsetimes for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices, wherein the determining which one or more of the multipleoutbound services to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of themultiple outbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expectedresponse times for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices comprises adding an outbound service, of the multiple outboundservices, with the shortest expected response time to a list of one ormore services determined to be invoked synchronously and iterativelyadding one or more further outbound services, of the multiple outboundservices, with a next shortest expected response time to the list of oneor more services determined to be invoked synchronously, the iterativelyadding being performed as long as a sum of expected response times forthe one or more services determined to be invoked synchronously does notexceed a threshold; invoking asynchronously the one or more of themultiple outbound services determined to be invoked asynchronously; andinvoking synchronously the one or more of the multiple outbound servicesdetermined to be invoked synchronously.
 7. The system according to claim6, wherein the threshold comprises a longest expected response time forany of the multiple outbound services.
 8. The system according to claim6, wherein the determining which one or more of the multiple outboundservices to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of the multipleoutbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expected responsetimes for the inbound request for each of the multiple outbound servicesfurther comprises adding all outbound services, of the multiple outboundservices, not on the list of one or more services determined to beinvoked synchronously to a list of one or more services, of the multipleoutbound services, determined to be invoked asynchronously.
 9. Thesystem according to claim 6, wherein the method further comprisesmonitoring response times of outbound service invocations andaccordingly updating stored expected response times for at least oneoutbound service of the multiple outbound services.
 10. The systemaccording to claim 6, wherein the accessing expected response times forthe inbound request for each of the multiple outbound services comprisesdetermining one or more properties of the inbound request and accessing,for each determined property of the one or more properties of theinbound request, at least one stored expected response time for at leastone outbound service of the multiple outbound services.
 11. A computerprogram product comprising: a computer readable storage medium havingprogram instructions embodied therewith, the program instructionsexecutable by a computer to perform a method comprising: receiving aninbound request to be processed based on multiple outbound serviceinvocations of multiple outbound services; accessing expected responsetimes for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices; determining which one or more of the multiple outboundservices to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of the multipleoutbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expected responsetimes for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices, wherein the determining which one or more of the multipleoutbound services to invoke asynchronously and which one or more of themultiple outbound services to invoke synchronously based on the expectedresponse times for the inbound request for each of the multiple outboundservices comprises adding an outbound service, of the multiple outboundservices, with the shortest expected response time to a list of one ormore services determined to be invoked synchronously and iterativelyadding one or more further outbound services, of the multiple outboundservices, with a next shortest expected response time to the list of oneor more services determined to be invoked synchronously, the iterativelyadding being performed as long as a sum of expected response times forthe one or more services determined to be invoked synchronously does notexceed a threshold; invoking asynchronously the one or more of themultiple outbound services determined to be invoked asynchronously; andinvoking synchronously the one or more of the multiple outbound servicesdetermined to be invoked synchronously.
 12. The computer program productaccording to claim 11, wherein the threshold comprises a longestexpected response time for any of the multiple outbound services. 13.The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein thedetermining which one or more of the multiple outbound services toinvoke asynchronously and which one or more of the multiple outboundservices to invoke synchronously based on the expected response timesfor the inbound request for each of the multiple outbound servicesfurther comprises adding all outbound services, of the multiple outboundservices, not on the list of one or more services determined to beinvoked synchronously to a list of one or more services, of the multipleoutbound services, determined to be invoked asynchronously.
 14. Thecomputer program product according to claim 11, wherein the methodfurther comprises monitoring response times of outbound serviceinvocations and accordingly updating stored expected response times forat least one outbound service of the multiple outbound services.
 15. Thecomputer program product according to claim 11, wherein the accessingexpected response times for the inbound request for each of the multipleoutbound services comprises determining one or more properties of theinbound request and accessing, for each determined property of the oneor more properties of the inbound request, at least one stored expectedresponse time for at least one outbound service of the multiple outboundservices.